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From: davidsen@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP (William E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: UUCP for PCs
Message-ID: <6234@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Jun-87 12:18:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: steinmet.6234
Posted: Thu Jun 11 12:18:24 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Jun-87 10:09:01 EDT
References: <7743@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: davidsen@kbsvax.steinmetz.UUCP (William E. Davidsen Jr)
Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 37

In article <7743@brl-adm.ARPA> GREIF@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU (Irene Greif) writes:
>Can anyone recommend a PC Unix with a UUCP that is known to work? (One
>that has been installed and is in use as a server for an organization with
>many email users.)  

There are three systems I've used.

PC/IX - an old klunky Sys III implementation which has proved itself in
three years of service on numerous machines here. As a mail server it is
dead reliable. Limitations: 2 serial ports.

XENIX - supports multiple users, can use up to 16 lines. It will not
lose data with two 9600 baud connections coming in, I don't know about
more. The manual for 2.1.3 admits that the implementation is V7 rather
than SysV. Limitations: when calling out the BREAK in L.sys sends three
nulls rather than a real break. This won't reliably autobaud on some
systems. It may be fixed in 2.2. I'm told that Excelan ethernet stuff
doesn't run on 2.2, by a user who's giving me his Enet board. There may
be an upgrade, or you may not care.

V/AT - testing on two systems indicates that there may be problems losing
data input at high speeds. This can be shown by tying two ports at 9600
and using cu, or running uucp at 9600 to other machines. We are told
that this is not the case with "real IBM serial ports" (we're using AST
boards). Other symptoms are "tss: double panic" messages followed by
having to power down. Outside of cost and slots, you can only run IBM
serial ports for two lines. There may not be a problem at lower speeds,
etc. 

If I were doing it and could live with two ports, I'd run PC/IX without
a doubt, just because it's so reliable. Other versions may be available
from Interactive Systems.

-- 
	bill davidsen		(wedu@ge-crd.arpa)
  {chinet | philabs | sesimo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me